OH my god today was a bad day. as I type I am in a very quiet lonely apartment while my problem child is having a much needed time out for a little while at my clinic.
Long story shorta short the dominance training I began yesterday opened my eyes to some serious problems. And helped me discover what some of his behaviors all along have meant. I have a LOT of work to do and he’s very resistant to me changing things. His way of showing it is spastic, chaotic behavior and completely ignoring the fact that he’s been house broken for a LONG time. He’s got HUGE shits and HUGE pees. All in my bedroom at in front of my bed.
So …hours of barking and whining and fretting and chasing his tail–a new habit he picked up in the last 36 hours --this all going down at wonderfully opurtune times like 2am—8am in the morning in an apartment complex :{
I have been given good advice and tips which I totally appreciate. the days of me thinking I had a clue about what is best for all dogs are totally out the window.
Its been less then an hour,and I already miss him–bad behavior and all:( BLAHHHHH. But I have a carpet to clean and a battle plan to devise…oh and i gotta workout.
Oh that sounds horrendous! I hope you manage to sort him out soon. Taking a firm approach seems to be best but I certainly wouldn’t want to deal with the weeing and pooping.
[quote]brute_fury wrote:
Oh Cal Its NO good. He’s totally rebelling.
Today
dejected and depressed for various reasons,I headed for some dl distraction
295x10, 305, 315, fail 325
20 mins cardio
mehhhhhhh. [/quote]
Keep your head up, Oh Furious One. You’re made of much stronger stuff than you realize. The numbers you’ve posted prove that. Nigel will come around. I do wonder, however. Has he been neutered?
He was fixed about a month ago, so fairly late. He’s anywhere from 8 to ten months old i’d guess. I also just realized the strange behavior amplified over the last week or so-- I think he picked upon my general vibes formmy personal life.
DURRRR! Now I feel a little better having some idea of an explanation. Pooper’s been trying to be macho and in charge for his mom while she’s a bit of a mess–there’s no way he couldn’t have noticed… Makes sense–for fuck’s sake it makes sense !!! light bulb
He was fixed about a month ago, so fairly late. He’s anywhere from 8 to ten months old i’d guess. I also just realized the strange behavior amplified over the last week or so-- I think he picked upon my general vibes formmy personal life.
DURRRR! Now I feel a little better having some idea of an explanation. Pooper’s been trying to be macho and in charge for his mom while she’s a bit of a mess–there’s no way he couldn’t have noticed… Makes sense–for fuck’s sake it makes sense !!! light bulb[/quote]
Well, that would probably explain a lot, then. The vibin’ thing, I mean. Pups are good about that stuff. And I like the reaction to my name… lol.
Hello Brutus. Missed you at the meet last weekend. Sorry you’re having such troubles with Nigel. My sister is a phenom with dogs. To gain dominance and get them to behave, she acts like a dog herself. Growls in their faces and displays other behaviors that make them demonstrate submissiveness (rolling over on back). It’s a bit weird, but it seems to work for her.
Dogs aren’t my area of animal training knowledge, but I do know that “clicker training” works great on just about anything. There are thousands of youtube instructionals on how to do it.
As I said, I’m not expert here, but you could easily use clicker training to teach a dog to perform submissive behaviors and then set the rewards on a variable schedule of reinforcement (in other words, when you first start teaching the behavior, the dog is always rewarded. Then you stop rewarding every time and eventually make it so he never knows when he’s going to be rewarded. This is what really engrains his responses).
You can also use clicker training to reward all behaviors related to good bathroom conduct on his part (such as asking to go out, actually doing the deed outside) and set those on a variable schedule of reinforcement as well.
Oh, one last thing. People generally stop rewarding their pets for the simple things. I don’t think it’s a good idea to reward them every time after the behavior is learned, but at least once a day is beneficial.
Hi Brute! Sorry to hear about the dominance issues. I know you work in a vet clinic so you know all about this sort of thing, but I’ll tell you my story anyway.
We had a big problem with dominance in our little border terrier after we kept a neighbor’s dog for a couple of months one summer. He decided he had to show dominance/ territory over the other dog and so he started marking in the house. He never marked in my room, but he marked all three of my kid’s beds and curtains. Tell me he wasn’t trying to say something there? “Hi, you are MY kids and I am the top dog around here”
Our neighbor’s dog was so passive, he’d just roll over for Otis all the time and let him hump his head. “Hi, I’m Otis and I’m going to DOMINATE you.” Long story short, the marking behavior turned into a nightmare of me with Nature’s Miracle, crating him when we couldn’t watch, tying him to my belt loop when I was home. We finally gave him back to the breeder because we couldn’t break it. As an aside, he was neutered when he was a pup.
He was fully potty trained BEFORE the other dog came to stay and triggered the whole thing. And he was otherwise a really wonderful family dog, but I just couldn’t deal. You gotta be super vigilant and this behavior can be really hard to break once it gets established. UGH! I feel for ya. Ironross is right up there about rewards. Our dog was WAY food motivated and a model clicker student. I think I could have delt with it if I weren’t so busy with three young kids as well. You should be up to the dog - MOM challenge.
thanks everyone for the good vibes for my boy. he has his first training session Monday–THANK GOD.
My trip was a god sent. REALLY. But …still…I’m having some trouble… more melt downs in Brute Land :{
I did a few workouts before the trip—OH yeah.I forgot to mention how i full on ate shit a few days before my trip. oh so embarrassing falling over Nigel while we were sprinting, and we were running like a bunch of psychos. SO i ate it hard on my fucking hip and bruised like a hot peach. felt strange for a while and hurt but so far so good.
did some dls today–literally just some. 300x6, 305. but they felt good all 7 of them
very tired mentally and very …emotionally a mess. lit at both ends and on high alert for anxiety freak outs :{ BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I’m holding tight until I get get over this, i know i will. FOR FUCKS SAKE
It sucks but i’m trying to come to terms with the fact that I’m just not going to have control over things for a while so i should just quit trying and feeling so bad when i fail–which i’m doing fairly consistently. failing failing to get a hold of the reins. It is tricky though, since i don’t feel really good about myself at all. besides everything else i feel like Patty Pounder. even my fancy shorts look shitty on me and i love my fancy shorts:{ bbbahhhh.
so word–just have to keep in mind how good it will feel once i do get back to The Good Brute…until then i look forward to that.
Good luck to Nigel at his training session. I hope it does some good. Oops for falling over him though! I’m glad you are OK - which you must be if the deadlifting is anything to go by.
I’ve run the gauntlet with my weight too. I have had poor body image most of my life stemming from being called fatty in junior school (I wasn’t actually that fat, but this was the 70s when obesity was rare and so the slightly chubby kids got teased instead). I hate when I put on weight and feel like a big slug but it’s hard to get into diet mode. Now that I am dieting and losing, I actually feel good going to bed and waking up knowing that I’ve eaten well instead of bingeing on carbs and other shitty food. Sometimes you just have to say enough and cut the crap but I know it’s tough to get into the right mindset when other things are dogging you (literally in your case, with Nigel!)
I’m sending some good vibes your way and hope you can pull yourself out of your funk. Just don’t forget you are pretty much awesome in terms of strength - I certainly wish I could come close to your numbers.
MY N and CAL!! I thank you sooo! I thought of you before I went to gym it yesterday and you helped me via internet web vibe exchange My workout was unspectacular but I got a PR
stretching then on to my babies, my pick me up when i’m down move. I know they don’t really have a place in pl training but i just like em. why can’t we do these instead of bench at a meet?? …i’d create some strange shit to do if it was up to me…Brute Federation.
over heads 95, one fifteen x ten, one twenty five x ten, one thirty for 6, one thirty five for 5, one forty for ten PR
I have a vid–and I had balance issues the entire day so please be prepared to tell video brute to spread her knees etc. I was just happy to get the bar up and well there you are.
today i am far too sore. I have no real reason except the time off threw me off and i probably screwed up my form for the ohs. but i have confidence in a day or so i’ll be fine.
Sounds like it’s been a trying time for you and Nigel. Chin up, you’ll come through clear on the other side soon enough. Watch out world.
I’ll just tell video Brute that I love watching her in the gym. Beyond the actual work you do the attitude you bring is excellent. I swooned a little in my seat when you threw that weight down at the end. grin Impressive how you kept the weight overhead when your balance slipped a little too; I’m pretty sure I would have dropped it at least to the clean position if not all the way down to the floor.
Its NO good. He’s totally rebelling.
thanks --um…Rodimus!